century prosperity. Formed in 1885, the year of the completion of the dock, by several local gentlemen, orders were, on the subscription of more than half the capital, placed with Messrs. Earles of Hull for eight steam trawlers. At the same time a number of fishing smacks were purchased, and early in 1886, the fishmarket being then opened, the company entered upon its career. It was not for a few years that success attended the venture in any decided sense, but the tide once turned, the good fortune of the company has continued unbroken. The eight steamers have grown into a noble fleet of thirty-five, varying in length from 90 ft. to 125 ft., whose fishing operations extend from as far north as Iceland to as far south as the Bay of Biscay and the Portuguese coast. Owing to the success of the parent company, others followed quickly in its wake, but all these have been gradually acquired by or amalgamated with the one now existing. The ever-growing scope of the business has necessitated the erection of a variety of workshops, including those devoted to engineering, boiler-making, tin and copper smiths, mast and block and twine spinning—the establishment of these enabling the company to take in hand all repairs connected with their boats. In addition to these, there are to be found upon the dock-quays under the company's jurisdiction an ice factory and a store for the reception of imports from Norway. The company are further lessees of the slipway built by the dock authorities in 1899 at a cost of £7,000, which, in addition to trawlers, is capable of receiving vessels up to 200 ft. in length and 1,000 tons dead weight. The value of the fish landed here amounts to about £100,000 yearly, being distributed throughout the kingdom by the wholesale merchants, to whom it is sold immediately on its arrival. The coal consumed by the company amounts to upwards of 50,000 tons per annum, the whole of conveyed from the colliery in wagons belonging to them.
From the point of view of employment alone, such an undertaking cannot but prove of considerable profit to the community in whose midst it is being carried on. The number of hands actually employed by the company is upwards of 500, the weekly amount paid in wages being about £800 or £900.
In 1901 the directors, in common with trawler-owners elsewhere along the east coast, awoke to the necessity of obtaining a class of seamen whose early training should fit them for the conditions which have replaced the trawling of the past. The apprenticeship system was therefore adopted, and a home was established for the accommodation of the boys when on shore. The lads, of whom there are now more than thirty on articles, are bound for four years, which is the shortest term on the coast, and during their apprenticeship every boy is allowed a reasonable amount of spending money. His chief remuneration is the 'stocker,' but when he attains to the place of deck hand, as some of the apprentices do very early, he is permitted to share in the perquisites of the crew. These are placed for him in the Seamen's Savings Bank, and at the close of his apprenticeship represent a very useful sum.[1]
The story of the Grimsby fisheries is the history of the port, and that, in turn, is the story of a struggle, sternly and strenuously maintained for centuries, against the silent and insidious inroads of an enemy that threatened, with every fresh advantage, to make a final end of Grimsby's present proud position as the premier fishing-port of the kingdom. The fortune of the fight was full of fluctuations. Now, victory was on the side of the sea; now, on that of the town—in either event, the battle was worth waging, for the prize was the seemingly unfailing harvest of the North Sea.
As early as the reign of Edward III the accumulation of mud and silt at the mouth of the harbour was doing much damage to the trade. The diverting of the River Freshney did somewhat to repair this damage; but in the reign of Charles I the smallest fishing-boats could scarcely approach the town. Local apathy seems to have abandoned hope for many years, though there were spasmodic efforts to cope with the mischief; but it was not until 1801 that the so-called Old Dock was constructed by the Haven Company at a cost of £60,000. In its construction, 135 acres were reclaimed from the sea. The Old Dock speedily passed from the hands of the earliest owners into those of the directors of the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway. By this company, the New Docks, twenty-five acres in extent, were added to the Old, with a lock capable of admitting the largest vessels of war. The first pile of the coffer dam of the New Dock was driven in 1846, and on 18 April, 1849, the foundation stone was laid by the Prince Consort. The New, re-named the Royal Dock, was completed in March, 1852, and the formal opening took place on 27 May of the same year. The accommodation which was soon found to be increasingly necessary involved a further outlay on the part of the company in 1872, when, on a large area of land acquired in the West Marsh, the construction was begun of the New Alexandra and Union Docks, together with the deepening and widening of the Old Dock. These docks were opened on 22 July, 1879, by the Prince and Princess of Wales.
Additional accommodation was brought into use in 1888 and 1899. In the former year a new coal drop was erected, by means of which
- ↑ Fish Trades Gaz. 22 June, 1901.
